Topkapi Palace

The Topkapı Palace was the center of the Ottoman Empire for 400 years

On our first afternoon in Istanbul, we decided to tour it.  

The gate into the first court

A fountain donated by someone important

Beautiful gardens 

Overlooking the Bosphorus or maybe the Golden Horn, an inlet that makes the old city a peninsula

Walls and guard tower

Ortakapı 

the middle gate into the second court

We took the extra tour to go through the harem

The Sultans entrance at the Carriage gate and road 

Talk about opulence

The blue tiles everywhere are Iznik tiles from the 16th century

Most places I can go back through the book and look at my pictures and more or less figure out what things were.  Here in the harem, not so much, so just enjoy the crazy opulence

to let light down to lower floors

a cool fresco

The woodwork and the doors were amazing

More light chimneys 

Many of the ceilings were spectacular

Mother of pearl inlay on the closet doors

a fancy fireplace

gotta love that ceiling

Another fancy fireplace

Up close on a pretty set of tile

Cool shelves

Fountain

How would you like this in your bedroom?

I think this was someones bedroom

Window grill

Nice hang out spot

This dome had an original wood ceiling.  I remember because it was unusual.

The harem garden?

Its a fun courtyard even if I don't remember what it was

Looking into Istanbul

After leaving the harem, this might be a library for a school.  The palace had lots of schools.  For boys only, of course, but education was important to the Ottomans

This is all third court

A whole lot of Islamic relics were in this building.  The line was forever though so we didn't try it

this building was obviously built with a European influence in the later part of the Ottoman empire

4th court
This was the private space of the sultan, and all the people who served him of course

The following are a bunch of buildings for various functions.  Decorated and beautiful, but purpose?  One was the circumcision kiosk where all the boys got snipped, but...

a pool with a neat fountain

View in the direction of the Black Sea and much of Istanbul

Roofs of the harem

City view

Lots of the palace is inaccessible because it is a mess.  Its a huge area to try to restore and maintain.  They have tons of visitors, and entry is not cheap, but you can tell its not enough

Garden with a pretty kiosk

Birds on the Bosphorus

Left Europe, right Asia

This couple was adorable and very much in love

Pretty copper gutters

Wandering the back of the fourth court, behind the euroinspired buildings

The kitchens, back in the second court, had the huge job of feeding the entire palace.  Thousands of people lived and worked in this huge complex

Lots of chimneys 

Some of the cooking tools were still there in a museum like set up.  They didn't allow pictures, but I snuck this one

Chimney

At this point, I could hardly walk and it was getting late.  Saw this family while massaging my feet

I loved the stray dogs in Turkey.  They were all super nice and non threatening.  Many had tags so I suppose there is a state program to manage them.  They often dug out beds in the gardens

Leaving by the main gate

It was evening by the time we left the palace.  Here is the Blue Mosque at night

The Egyptian obelisk.  It used to be much taller but the bottom 2/3 didn't survive the trip from Egypt.  In the 4th century.